System and method for hybrid in-person and remote audio/visual conference broadcasting

ABSTRACT

A hybrid in-person and remote audiovisual conference broadcasting system provides a centrally controlled system for managing and broadcasting the audiovisual data collected from mobile devices both in humanly perceptible proximity of an in-person public-address system and beyond humanly perceptible proximity to the in-person public-address system. In an exemplar embodiment, a moderator controls requests from various participant members to broadcast audio or video from their personal mobile device to the other group members. Some members may be in proximity to an in-person public address system where they may for example be able to hear amplified audio and see live projected or otherwise presented video. In this exemplar embodiment, remote users not in proximity to the in-person public address system may also participate by for example listening to and viewing the broadcast audiovisual data on their personal mobile devices. Both in-person/local users and remote users may request to be selected for broadcasting to all users.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 17/006,865 filed on Aug. 30, 2020, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/865,073 filed on Jan. 8, 2018,issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,764,697 which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/988,598, filed on Jan. 5, 2016, issued asU.S. Pat. No. 9,866,979, which is a divisional application of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/844,412, filed Mar. 15, 2013, issued asU.S. Pat. No. 9,232,307 on Jan. 5, 2016, which is a continuation-in-partpatent application of U.S. app. Ser. No. 13/430,618, filed Mar. 26,2012, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,452,026 on May 28, 2013, which is itselfa continuation-in-part application of U.S. app. Ser. No. 12/220,791,filed Jul. 28, 2008, and which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,144,893 on Mar.27, 2012, which in turn claims priority from U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/962,067, filed Jul. 26, 2007, and having the title,MASH-UP OF PHYSICAL SPACE AND CYBERSPACE. Each of the above patents andpatent applications is incorporated herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of communications,particularly closed environment communication, local conferencing andthe use of existing voice and data messaging systems in these fields ofcommunication.

BACKGROUND

There are numerous personal mobile communication devices available onthe market at the present time, such as cellular phones, PDA's (PersonalDigital Assistants), WiFi and Bluetooth laptop processors (PC and Mac),smartphones, such as the Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, and otherhand-sized, computer-based communication devices, and even electronictablets, such as the Apple iPad, the ASUS Nexus 7 and the like withmobile communication applications. Despite their ubiquity, thetechnology for these systems is still underutilized and use has focusedon their primary functions and not derivative or ancillary capabilities,especially when combined with other technologies.

In conferences, meetings, classrooms and the like, a typicalquestion-and-answer period allows participants to ask questions from thefloor. In a large venue without amplification, others in the room oftenhave trouble hearing the speaker. Commonly, a microphone is provided inone or more aisles or a portable microphone is passed to a personwishing to ask a question. This can force people to maneuver theirseating towards the aisles where microphone access might be more easilyavailable, or cause some significant and disturbing activity inaudiences and lead to disruption of the underlying meeting. The movementof the microphones through the audience can be tedious, slow (e.g., fromone extreme corner of a room to another) and cumbersome. There can alsobe such significant jousting for attention as to be disconcerting toparticipants and lead to a loss of audience control.

This current system also may not work because a microphone is notavailable, does not work well, or there is no portable microphone handynear the participant who wishes to speak. Often, the participant speakerdoesn't properly use a microphone—waving it about or placing it too faraway from his or her mouth while speaking—thus negating the advantagesof the microphone.

SUMMARY

The present invention addresses or substantially mitigates theseproblems.

Conventional data transmission systems are used in a group setting fordata transmission from participants to a central communication point forsequential communication of information from participants, through thecentral communication point to the group. Individual data transmissionscan be queued (if extended communications), received and downloaded iftextual in content, or otherwise organized in a received or receptionavailable status. Vocal communications can be broadcast on aconventional speaker/broadcast system by uploading the vocalcommunication from a participant, and electronically inputting it into amulti-speaker system (preferred) or a single speaker system. Datatransmission may be fed into a display unit for display to the moderatoronly (to screen incoming materials) or directly onto a group display ora combination of the two.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent upon consideration of the following detailed descriptionand the accompanying drawings, in which like reference designationsrepresent like features throughout the figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a flow diagram of a process according to the presenttechnology.

FIG. 2 shows a venue with a conventional sound amplification system.

FIG. 3 shows one embodiment of the present invention in which mobiletelephone network systems are used for communication from an audiencemember. FIG. 4A shows another embodiment of the present invention inwhich WiFi technology is used for communication from an audience member;FIG. 4B shows a variation of the FIG. 4A network arrangement; FIG. 4Cshows another embodiment of the present invention in which Bluetoothtechnology is used.

FIG. 5A shows still another embodiment of the present invention in whicha dongle is used with an audience member's personal mobilecommunications device; and FIG. 5B shows a variation of the FIG. 5Anetwork arrangement in which a control computer directly receives thesignals from the dongle.

DESCRIPTION

The present invention is well adapted to conventional soundamplification systems commonly used at conferences, meetings,classrooms, and other venues, often called public address systems. Oneor more microphones are connected by wire or connected wirelessly to apublic address or sound amplification system through specified inputs,such as microphone inputs, line inputs, auxiliary inputs, etc. Eachmicrophone can be equipped with its own ON/OFF switch. If more than onemicrophone is turned on at the same time, the operator can select oneparticular microphone, using an input switch on the preamplifier or theamplifier, or by using software (Macro Media Flash Player is oneexample) to control a computer which directs the operation of the soundamplification system so that only one microphone input is activated atone time. Sometimes, a single microphone is passed from one speaker toanother. Such a conventional sound amplification system or publicaddress system is illustrated in FIG. 2. For purposes of simplification,only a single microphone 18, an amplifier system 16 (which includespreamplifier and amplifier elements) and audio speakers 17 are shown. Tohelp the speaker(s) make his or her points to the audience, the speakermay use a visual display system 19, such as a screen and slideprojectors or, more currently, a screen with electronic projectors, oreven an electronic display connected to a computer 15, such as shown inFIG. 2. Though shown as a conventional desk top computer, a lap topcomputer is typically used to operate the visual display system. Thespeaker prompts the visual display system 19 by a conventional remotecontrol device (not shown).

The present invention fits into such public address systems with variousembodiments, some of which are illustrated in the drawings anddescription below.

In accordance with the present invention, a central communications pointhaving visual and/or audio communication capability to a group isestablished. A speaker's table, podium, raised stage position and thelike are useful, and the presence of an audio system (e.g., speakers,broadcast system, etc. of a public address system) and/or a visualdisplay system (e.g., projector, electronic panel display, etc.) ispreferred to allow for general hearing and viewing by an audience. Suchan arrangement is represented in FIG. 3 in which an audience isaddressed by a public address system formed by speakers 17 andamplifiers 16 with a central microphone 18. A visual display system isnot shown in this example to avoid visual clutter. The system may alsoenable more distal attendance at the presentation/interaction, as withcameras and closed circuit or broadband distribution of content over theInternet, for example.

A central receiving function is also provided at the centralcommunications point. This may be provided by a receiver in a telephonesystem (with a phone number available to participants), a text receivingdevice (again a cellular phone, PDA, smartphone, laptop or specialinstrumentation that can receive text or vocal transmission) and one ormore computers to handle the functions described below. In FIG. 3 thecentral receiving function is provided by the combination 22 of atelephone receiver 14 and a control computer 25 in the form of a laptopcomputer which is connected to the public address system. Individuals atthe event (attendees) are provided with contact information fortransmitting data to the central receiving function, such as a telephonenumber, website, e-mail address or any other access information neededto direct transmission of information to the central receiving function.The central computer 25 helps provide a queuing function for the centralreceiving function. For example, software and hardware is commerciallyavailable for call waiting, or queuing (as is done in commercialservices, such as airline reservations or customer service functionsaccessed by telephone). Electronic textual information is more easilyqueued, as is common with stacking of e-mail transmissions in the orderin which they are received.

At a prescribed time in the conference, or even during the conferencebefore a question-and-answer session, individual attendees (local ordistal) transmit their communication to the central location and theirtransmissions are accepted and/or queued according to defined criteria.One significant advantage of the system is that the individual attendeesare able to use their own personal equipment and their own personalcommunication network with which they are already familiar, and they donot have to learn an available system provided entirely by the eventmanagers. Persons on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, or other telephonetransmission networks can telephone a given number, just as laptop users(whether PC or MAC) can use their own web-carriers or network managersto deliver an e-mail to the central location, with no retraining needed.

Attendees/participants in a conference, meeting room, classroom, orother venue may use their personal mobile communications devices, suchas cellular telephones or smartphones, as microphones to address othersin the room via the public address or sound amplification system. Thusin one embodiment, a mobile telephone or smartphone, for example, isused in combination with a public address system to allow theprospective speaker's voice to be heard over the sound amplificationsystem. The present invention takes advantage of the fact that mostconference and meeting attendees carry their personal mobilecommunication devices with them. In FIG. 3, audience members andparticipants use their personal mobile communication devices 10, such ascellular phones, smartphones and like to call the telephone receiver 14through a wireless telephone network 12 including wireless telephonebase stations 11 and network servers 13.

The system includes methods that centrally control communication at asingle venue. The central communications point with a moderator (whichmay be fully automated by a processor or by a live presenter) isprovided. Information, at least at the venue, is provided by theattendees, for example, for transmitting electronic signals to thecentral communications point. The moderator enables at least oneelectronic communication transmission from an attendee/participant whohas access to the central communications point to have at least part ofthe transmission broadcast at the venue or allow open communication fromthe attendee/participant to be broadcast at the venue. Theattendee/participant electronic signals may be transmitted by wirelesscellular phone transmission to a telephone system at the centralcommunication point, or may be transmitted by WiFi processor-basedtransmission to a processor system at the central communication point,or by other wireless networks. The processor system at the centralcommunications point may receive transmission through a hard-wiredsystem, a WiFi system, or by other wireless networks. These networkarrangements are described below. The electronic communicationtransmission may comprise or consist of textual information, videoinformation and/or audio information. Each electronic communication froma user may be queued for response at the central communications point.

In one embodiment of the communication system disclosed herein andillustrated by FIG. 3, each attendee/participant who wishes to speakuses his personal mobile communications device to call the phone numberthat is unique to the telephone receiver(s) associated with the centralcommunications point. The attendee caller, in turn, is connected to theconventional sound amplification system, i.e., public address system.The phone number for each system, or room might be listed in a programor posted at the front of the room. Remote participants can takeadvantage of the system to call the room from their remote location, inwhich case the attendees hear the question through the public addresssystem. The central communications point has one or more telephonereceivers, represented by a telephone receiver 14, which is connected tothe amplifier system 16 and speakers 17, which form the public addresssystem, through a control computer 25. The central communications pointalso has a visual display system 19 connected to the control computer15. Among its components, the control computer 25 has one or moreprocessors, memory elements, input/output units, such as keyboard, mouseand display, and network connection units.

When the attendee's personal mobile communications device 10 calls theprovided number, the call is directed by a nearby wireless telephonetransceiver base station 11 of a wireless telephone network 12 whichincludes one or more wireless telephone network servers 13 whichdirect(s) the call to the intended destination. As represented in FIG.3, the call is directed back to the wireless telephone base station 11which sends the call to the central communications point telephonereceiver 14 and the control computer 25 by which the centralcommunications point can direct the call through the amplifier system 16and speakers 17. The speaker with the mobile telephone 10 can nowaddress the audience through the public address system. To connect thetelephone receiver 14 to the public address system, programming codeheld in the memory elements of the control computer 25 instructs thecomputer processor(s) to make the connection.

Furthermore, other members of the audience can use their own personalmobile communications devices to call into the central communicationspoint 22 to allow the members to see and hear the presentation at thevenue directly. Each audience member can hear the audio signalsbroadcast from the presentation and questions posed to the moderator,for example, and see the presentation on the visual display system 19through his personal mobile communications device 10. This is beneficialto members of the audience who are aurally and/or visually impairedpersonally or by their situation at the venue. Additionally, for thosehearing-impaired audience members who do not use personal mobilecommunications devices, the control computer 25 can send the audiosignals to an audio induction loop system whereby hearing aids in theaudience transmit the audio signals for the public address system. Audioinduction loop systems are placed in many public locations for thebenefit of the hearing-impaired.

Besides connections through mobile telephone networks, the presentinvention also provides for other network arrangements. FIG. 4Aillustrates an arrangement with a local wireless network and a localreceiver of the central communications point which sends the voiceinformation signals over the public address system for the audience tohear. Many personal mobile communication devices, for example,smartphones, PDA's (Personal Digital Assistants), electronic tablets,such as the Apple iPad, the ASUS Nexus, the Samsung Galaxy and otherdevices, are already or may easily be equipped for audio communicationover WiFi, which uses RF (Radio Frequency) signals. As shown in FIG. 4A,the wireless information from the attendee/participant's personal mobilecommunication device 10 is received by a wireless access point 21. Thewireless access point 21 connects the personal mobile communicationsdevice 10 to a second personal mobile communications device 26 which isconnected to the public address system with the amplifier system 16 andspeakers 17. This local wireless communications channel from onepersonal mobile communications device 10 to another device 26 operatesunder the standards of IEEE 802.1 In (Multi-Media, WMM) for Quality ofService. Attendee/participant packetized data is sent via TCP(Transmission Control Protocol) separately from the audio signals, whichare sent under UDP (User Datagram Protocol); the control signals operateunder TCP (Transmission Control Protocol).

In the local wireless network arrangement of FIG. 4A, it is advantageousthat the personal mobile communications devices 10 and 26 beapplications-programmable, such as smartphones. Since smartphones arenearly ubiquitous in modern society, the devices 10 and 26 below aredescribed as smartphones, though it should be understood that thedevices should not necessarily be so limited. Applications forsmartphones are called “apps” and that terminology is used below. In oneembodiment of the invention, an app in the smartphone 10 allows anattendee/participant to call the other smartphone 26 (the moderator'ssmartphone) through the wireless access point 21. With connection to thepublic address system, i.e., the amplifiers 16 and speakers 17, the apppermits the smartphone 10 to function as a microphone for theattendee/participant caller. The app (or another app on the smartphone10) also allows the attendee/participant to post his or her profile forviewing by other audience members through their smartphones. Theseprofiles can be so-called social networking profiles, such as thosefound at Facebook and LinkedIn, or organizational profiles, customprofiles from the attendee/participant or a profile created by the appitself

Furthermore, as in the example of FIG. 3, members of the audience canuse their smartphones to connect to the central communications point 22through broadcast WiFi signals to allow the members to see and hear thepresentation at the venue directly. Each audience member can hear theaudio signals for the public address system from the presentation andquestions posed to the moderator, for example, and see the presentationon the visual display system 19 through her smartphone 10. Members ofthe audience who are aurally and/or visually impaired personally or bytheir situation at the venue benefit from this feature. Additionally,induction loop systems can also be engaged. Upon receiving an indicatorsignal the wireless access point 21 can send the audio signals an audioinduction loop system for hearing aids in the audience.

With a much shorter signal path as compared to that shown in FIG. 3, anylatency is much reduced in the FIG. 4A network arrangement. Latency ismanifested in a delay between the caller speaking into his or her mobilephone, for example, and the caller's amplified voice on the publicaddress system. The delay is caused by the caller's voice signalstraveling from his mobile telephone through the wireless telephonenetwork of FIG. 3, for example, including possibly the Internet, thenback through the wireless telephone network and to the telephone numberfor the receiver(s) of the central communications point. Physically theaudio signals travel nearly a complete circle—from the caller's mobiletelephone back to the sound amplification system for the audience. Ifthe delay is sufficiently long, typically in the range from 20 to 100milliseconds, the delayed voice can interrupt the speaker's thoughts andinterfere with his or her speech. The local wireless network illustratedin FIG. 4A has a reduced latency by eliminating the wireless telephonenetworks illustrated by FIG. 3. Furthermore, the app in the smartphone10 of an attendee/participant can increase latency so as not tointerrupt the caller's thoughts and interfere with speech. If the delayis large enough, a speaker considers the delayed speech as simplybackground noise. The app also supplies a side-tone to help theattendee/participant caller and moderator speak smoothly and has analgorithm to avoid feedback, the undesired screech heard over publicaddress systems.

FIG. 4B illustrates another local wireless network arrangement. In thisexample, the control computer 25 takes over some of the functions of theapp of the moderator's smartphone 26 and allows a second person at thecomputer 25 assume some of the responsibilities of the moderator.Further variations of WiFi networks include simply having the personalmobile communications devices 10 of the audience broadcast digital RFsignals on the WiFi band without packetizing. A dedicated RF receiverattached to the public address system handles the reception of thesignals. In another variation, a separate WiFi base station isestablished especially for the smartphones 10 of theattendee/participants and other members of the audience to avoidinterference from other signals.

FIG. 4C illustrates another embodiment which uses Bluetooth networktechnology which is also found in many mobile devices. The nearbycomputer 25 acts as a Bluetooth receiver and converts the signals intoaudio signals for the attached public address system. The computer 25 isnearby because the Bluetooth signal range is limited. Alternatively, thecomputer 25 converts the Bluetooth signals to RF or optical (IR) signalswhich are received by a dedicated receiver attached to the publicaddress system. The drawings shows that this arrangement also broadcastsBluetooth signals to allow the audience members to see and hear thepresentation at the venue directly through their devices 10. Stillanother alternative to create a Bluetooth mesh network from theaudience's personal mobile communications devices 10 so that a Bluetoothsignal is daisy-chained to a distant Bluetooth receiver.

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate network arrangements with the use of adongle, a small electronic unit, attached to the personal mobilecommunications device 10 of the attendee/participants. For example, adongle can be plugged into a mobile telephone to transmit and receiveeither RF (Radio Frequency) or IR (Infrared) signals. As shown in FIG.5A, the IR signals from a dongle 20 attached to the caller's mobilephone 10 are received either by an IR receiver attached to the publicaddress system's amplifier 16, or by a plurality of IRdetector/transmitter/repeaters 21 which are spread around the venue. Thedetectors/transmitter/repeaters 21 then transmit the IR signals inelectronic form to the connected control computer 25. The FIG. 5Adrawing shows only one detector/transmitter/repeater 21 receiving IRsignals from the caller's mobile telephone 10 and attached dongle 20 forsimplicity's sake, but a more accurate representation is that several,if not all, of the detector/transmitter/repeaters 21 receive the IRsignals from the dongle 20 at slightly different times and varyingstrengths. A visual display system is not shown, also for simplicity.

The dongle 20 is connected to the mobile phone 10 through the phone's3.5 mm audio jack. The dongle 20 receives an electronic audio signal orits PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) representation from the mobile phone 10.The dongle 20 then either uses the PCM formatted data directly to driveits IR transmitter or converts the audio signal to PCM to modulate an IRsource, such as an LED, or an RF source on the dongle 20. The PCMsignals, a digital representation of sampled audio signals of thecaller, are received by one or more of thedetector/transmitter/repeaters 21 which transforms the IR or RF signalsback into electronic audio data which is sent to the central controlcomputer 25, and the amplifiers 16 and speakers 17. Each dongle 20 alsosends its own identification code so that the central control computer25 recognizes each prospective speaker.

FIG. 5B illustrates this embodiment of the present invention. The dongle20 translates the audio signals into RF signals, such as FM (FrequencyModulation) signals, which are broadcast by the dongle. A receiver atthe computer 25 provides the portal through which the RF signals arereceived and the computer 25 translates the RF signals into audio datafor the amplification system 16 to broadcast through the speakers 17. RFsignals, unlike IR signals which are blocked by the walls of theenvironment, can penetrate the walls of the venue and might be availableto outsiders so that the contents of the conference, at least theinformation imparted by the speakers of the phone 10, may be availableto outsiders. This poses a problem if the information is confidential.To avoid undesirable disclosure of the information, the electronic audiodata from the phone 10 are encrypted by the dongle 20 before beingtranslated into RF signals and broadcast. Upon receipt at the computer25, the RF signals are translated back into audio data and decrypted todrive the amplifier system 16 and speakers 17.

Besides different network arrangements, the present inventionfacilitates the use of the audience's personal mobile communicationdevices as a microphone at the venue. The computer code directs thecontrol computer 25 so that the central communications point performssome, or all, of the following functions:

-   -   1) The computer apparatus receives and answers the phone call.        The apparatus can then perform one or more of the following:        -   a) A recorded voice acknowledges to the attendee/participant            caller that the call has been successfully connected. It may            tell the caller his or her place in the queue.        -   b) The apparatus sets a line level (amount of signal            amplification) according to the strength of the            attendee/participant caller's signal in order to provide the            preamplifier section of the amplifier system 16 with an            optimum signal-to-noise ratio. The apparatus' ability to            measure the strength of the attendee/participant caller's            signal may require that the caller speak a few words.        -   c) The apparatus passes the audio signal to the preamplifier            of the amplifier system 16 through its own amplifier stage            which adjusts the signal both for volume and output            impedance (to match the input impedance of the preamplifier)            directly to the “microphone”, “mic” or, sometimes, the “line            input,” of the existing sound system.        -   d) The sound system then treats the input in the same manner            as it treats a microphone signal.    -   2) If the call is not passed through directly, the apparatus may        do any of the following:        -   a) The apparatus can accept calls in an order of priority            (the basis of which can be established by the event            organizer and communicated to the participants).            -   i) The apparatus can assign a place in a queue depending                on any number of possible criteria, such as when the                call was received, the area code of the caller, the                position of the caller in the room, the comparative                quality of audio signal, a priority code punched in by                the caller, etc.        -   b) The apparatus can call back attendee/participant callers,            in time to re-establish the connection, when it becomes a            caller's turn to speak.            -   i) The apparatus can record the phone number of the                attendee/participant caller.            -   ii) The apparatus can hang up the phone, and dial the                caller back when the caller's turn to ask a question                comes up.    -   3) The apparatus can put the call on hold, and take the call off        hold, when the attendee/participant caller's turn comes up. 3.        Alternatively, since most calls are questions from the audience        interspersed with answers by the person to whom the question is        addressed, the apparatus can avoid feedback or simultaneous        input from speaker and respondent by allowing an        attendee/participant caller to:        -   a) Ask a question and hang up.            -   i) The question can be recorded and played back when the                caller's turn comes up.        -   b) Ask a question and stay on the line. (The            attendee/participant caller can put his/her phone on mute or            the moderator can put the call on mute. The apparatus can            put the call on mute while the respondent is answering.) (An            automatic delay can be built in so that a follow-up question            is less likely to overlap an answer.)        -   c) The apparatus can employ other feedback-prevention            techniques, such as the introduction of a short delay.

In order to accommodate more simultaneous callers than can be handled bythe telephone receiver(s) in the central communications point, the phonenumber provided to the attendees may be that of a telephone call centerwhich can receive simultaneous, multiple calls, buffer, prioritize,store, and redirect them one-at-a-time to the telephone receiver in thecentral communication point.

Rather than the control computer 25 (in FIG. 3, for example), thecentral communications point can also operate through a smartphone ofthe moderator, such as the network arrangement illustrated by FIG. 4A.An app in the smartphone 26 allows the moderator to control the queue ofattendee/participant callers. The moderator can see the socialnetworking profiles of the callers through his app; conversely theaudience can also see the profiles of the callers (and other audiencemembers) through the moderator's app and the apps on their ownsmartphones. Through the app the moderator can see the queue and assigna caller to a place in the queue; the caller can also see his place inthe queue through the app on his personal mobile communications device10. Through his app, the moderator can see a text of a question or asummary of the question which an attendee/participant caller has sent tothe moderator. A caller's question and comments can be recorded and theapp permits the moderator to decide when the question and comments canbe replayed over the public address system or to simply connect theselected caller to the public address system and have the caller repeather question and comments directly to the audience through hersmartphone as microphone. Alternatively, the moderator through the appcan repeat a caller's question by text. For control over the callers,the moderator's app permits the moderator to open and close the caller'smicrophone function during an address over the public address system,for example, or to allow the caller the control of her smartphone.

Finally, the app in the smartphone 10 of an audience member can be usedto allow the member to see and hear the presentation at the venuedirectly. The audience member can hear the presentation from audiosignals broadcast from the presentation at the venue's podium, forexample, and see the presentation from broadcast video signals if acamera is also capturing the presentation.

There are also some additional features that may be combined into thesystem as already described. Besides audio information, the presentinvention also handles text, graphic and video information whethersupplied by the speaker or uploaded by an attendee/participant in novelways. The visual display systems 19 illustrated in FIGS. 3, 4A-C and5A-B can handle text, graphic and video information sent by, or relatedto, an attendee/participant and can be presented to the audience toenhance a question or comment by the attendee/participant.

Not only are the prospective attendee/participant callers placed in aqueue for speaking as described above, the place of each prospectivecaller in the queue can be displayed on the visual display system 19. Inthis manner each speaker is prepared for his or her turn. This isparticularly useful if the queue is not displayed on the personal mobilecommunications device 10 of the caller.

The visual display system 19 displays prospective questions from theaudience and from the attendee speakers. The questions can be sent in bytext over personal mobile communication devices 10, or less convenientlyby stand-alone computers if the person is listening from a locationremoved from the venue. If the question from the prospective speaker hasbeen recorded, the question is translated into text by speechrecognition software, such as that sold by Microsoft Corporation ofRedmond, Wash., and Nuance Communications in Burlington, Mass., and thetext placed on the visual display system 19. The questions on the visualdisplay system 19 provide the audience an opportunity to ponder theissues raised by the questions before they are asked and increase thevenue experience.

For each question there is some indication to its source/prospectivespeaker on the visual display system 19. The indication can be thee-mail address of the prospective speaker, or any on-line identityprovided by the prospective speaker, for example, his or her profileposted in Facebook and LinkedIn social/business networking websites sothat members of the audience can learn more about who is speaking andcontact a speaker if they so desire.

The technology enabled herein includes a method for centrallycontrolling communication at a single venue. The method provides acentral communication point comprising a processor and a moderator(which may be fully automated by the processor or by a live presenter).Personal mobile communications devices of the audience members are used.Each device is a transmitting device (and preferably also with areceiving functionality) and a display device for providing memberinformation and viewing. The device at least transmits electronicsignals comprising audio signals (and preferably other electronicsignals, including text and video) to the central communication point.The moderator enables at least one electronic communication transmissionfrom the member device, which device has access to the centralcommunication point to have at least part of the transmission broadcastas video content at the venue and allow open audio communication fromthe device to be broadcast at the venue. The member information may betransmitted by wireless cellular phone transmission to a telephonesystem at the central communication point. The user information may betransmitted by WiFi processor-based transmission to the processor at thecentral communication point. The processor at the central communicationpoint may receive transmission through a hard-wired system. Theelectronic communication transmission may include textual information,audio information, web-accessing information and the like. Eachelectronic communication from a member may be queued for response at thecentral communication point and may be informed of the position in thequeue by the processor at the central communication point. Theelectronic communications from each device may be queued for response atthe central communication point.

By rearranging the settings in the system, it is possible for asmartphone user, using the app, to communicate directly over the Wi-Fisystem established by the Wi-Fi base station 21 to all of the othersmartphone users effectively creating an ad hoc public address systemlimited only by the Wi-Fi coverage. In venues without a Wi-Fi system,the base station within a phone equipped with a mobile hot spotcapability can broadcast its own Wi-Fi signal acting as a base stationor access point. Those attendees wishing to hear, can listen over wiredheadphones, Bluetooth headphones, Bluetooth equipped hearing aids,holding their phones to their ears in the normal manner or placing theirphones in speakerphone mode. Attendees who do not have a phone or aphone that can utilize the app can request that nearby attendees placetheir phones on speakerphone mode. In this way even if only ⅓ of theattendees are properly equipped, providing they are distributedthroughout the venue and all put their phones on speakerphone, everyonemay be able to hear.

The rearrangement of the settings referred to above consists ofreversing certain settings allowing the moderator/host side of the appto broadcast to all of the attendees. In this mode, the moderator useshis or her microphone as if he/she were an attendee speaking, and theattendee's side of the app receives the audio signal as if it were themoderator's app receiving a signal.

This description of the invention has been presented for the purposes ofillustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the invention to the precise form described, and manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the teachingabove. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to bestexplain the principles of the invention and its practical applications,and the titles were selected only to provide a guide to the reader andshould not be considered as limiting the subject matter of the entitledtext. This description will enable others skilled in the art to bestutilize and practice the invention in various embodiments and withvarious modifications as are suited to a particular use. The scope ofthe invention is defined by the following claims.

We claim:
 1. A method of hybrid broadcasting from mobile devices,comprising the steps of: accepting submitted broadcasting requests fromone or more mobile devices of a mobile device group, the mobile devicegroup comprising one or more local mobile devices and one or more remotemobile devices; selecting a selected mobile device from the one or moremobile devices submitting broadcast requests; broadcasting data in ahumanly perceptible form from the selected mobile device using anin-person public-address system, the one or more local mobile devicesbeing within humanly perceptible proximity of the in-personpublic-address system; and broadcasting data in a humanly perceptibleform from the selected mobile device using each of the one or moreremote mobile devices generally simultaneously with the step ofbroadcasting data in a humanly perceptible form from the selected mobiledevice using the in-person public-address system, the one or more remotemobile devices being beyond humanly perceptible proximity of thein-person public-address system.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising the step of: blocking selectively mobile devices of themobile device group exclusive of the selected mobile device fromtransmitting at least a portion of the data to the in-personpublic-address system and from transmitting at least the portion of thedata to remote mobile devices of the mobile device group.
 3. The methodof claim 2, wherein all mobile devices exclusive of the selected mobiledevice are blocked from transmitting at least the portion of the data tothe in-person public-address system and are blocked from transmitting atleast the portion of the data to all mobile devices of the mobile devicegroup exclusive of the selected mobile device.
 4. The method of claim 2,wherein only a portion of the mobile devices of the mobile device groupexclusive of the selected mobile device are blocked from transmitting atleast the portion of the data to the in-person public-address system andare blocked from transmitting at least the portion of the data to allmobile devices of the mobile device group exclusive of the selectedmobile device.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprisesaudio data.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the audio data is capturedby the selected mobile device in real time.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the data comprises visual data.
 8. The method of claim 7,wherein the visual data is captured by the selected mobile device inreal time.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises audiodata and visual data.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the audio dataand visual data is captured by the selected mobile device in real time.11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one mobile device of themobile device group is configured as a smartphone.
 12. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising the step of: serially selecting at least twodistinct mobile devices of the mobile device group as the selectedmobile device.
 13. A method of conducting a hybrid meeting using mobiledevices, comprising the steps of: collecting in-person data via anin-person audio/visual system; collecting remote data from one or moreremote mobile devices located beyond humanly perceptible proximity ofthe in-person audio/visual system; broadcasting the in-person data andthe remote data in a humanly perceptible form using the in-personaudio/visual system; and broadcasting the in-person data and the remotedata in a humanly perceptible form using one or more remote mobiledevices generally simultaneously with the step of broadcasting thein-person data and the remote data in a humanly perceptible form usingthe in-person audio/visual system, the one or more remote mobile devicesbeing beyond humanly perceptible proximity of the in-person audio/visualsystem.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of:broadcasting the in-person data and the remote data in a humanlyperceptible form using one or more local mobile devices generallysimultaneously with the step of broadcasting the in-person data and theremote data in a humanly perceptible form using the in-personaudio/visual system, the one or more local mobile devices being withinhumanly perceptible proximity of the in-person audio/visual system. 15.A system for hybrid broadcasting from mobile devices, comprising: acentral communication processor and controller configured to: acceptsubmitted broadcasting requests from one or more mobile devices of amobile device group, the mobile device group comprising one or morelocal mobile devices and one or more remote mobile devices; select aselected mobile device from the one or more mobile devices submittingbroadcast requests; and a broadcasting system configured to broadcastdata in a humanly perceptible form from the selected mobile device usingan in-person public-address system, the one or more local mobile devicesbeing within humanly perceptible proximity of the in-personpublic-address system; and broadcast data in a humanly perceptible formfrom the selected mobile device using each of the one or more remotemobile devices generally simultaneously with the step of broadcastingdata in a humanly perceptible form from the selected mobile device usingthe in-person public-address system, the one or more remote mobiledevices being beyond humanly perceptible proximity of the in-personpublic-address system.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the centralcommunication processor and controller is further configured toselectively block mobile devices of the mobile device group exclusive ofthe selected mobile device from transmitting at least a portion of thedata to the in-person public-address system and from transmitting atleast the portion of the data to remote mobile devices of the mobiledevice group.
 17. The system of claim 15, wherein the centralcommunication processor and controller is further configured to blockall mobile devices exclusive of the selected mobile device fromtransmitting at least the portion of the data to the in-personpublic-address system and are blocked from transmitting at least theportion of the data to all mobile devices of the mobile device groupexclusive of the selected mobile device.
 18. The system of claim 15,wherein the central communication processor and controller is configuredto block only a portion of the mobile devices of the mobile device groupexclusive of the selected mobile device from transmitting at least theportion of the data to the in-person public-address system and areblocked from transmitting at least the portion of the data to all mobiledevices of the mobile device group exclusive of the selected mobiledevice.
 19. The system of claim 15, wherein the data comprises audiodata.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the audio data is captured bythe selected mobile device in real time.